Outside. the noises of scurrying students on
the Berkeley campus during the noon hour were lost in the blended euphony
which filled the audience-packed amphitheatre in California Hall. Students and
faculty members sat or stood in quiet reflection, listening to a musical
performance by the Griller Quartet, internationally renowned string ensemble
and the University of California's first Quartet in Residence.
When
the last note of the composition had been drawn, the audience remained silent
for a moment; then it began an applause which continued even after the
musicians had packed away their instruments.
Sidney
Griller, first violinist and leader of the quartet, turned again and bowed
appreciatively, as did the other members of the quartet: Jack O'Brien, second
violinist; Philip Burton, violist; and Colin Hampton, cellist.
The
response at California Hall that noon was as enthusiastic as any the quartet
had received in the great concert halls of Europe, at Buckingham Palace, the
Potsdam Conference and New York City's Town Hall. For that matter, it was as
enthusiastic as that which they'd received in the barns, inns, saloons, corn
exchanged and school auditoriums in which they'd performed during their early,
formative years.
The Griller have played
together for 21 years without interruption; longer than any other contemporary
quartet in the world. Today, with a solid reputation in the musical world, the
members of the quartet like to reflect on those early days of endurance,
persistence, hardship and financial strain.
"We
were very young and very, very rash, you know," says Griller. "No
one in his right mind would have picked a year like 1929 to form a chamber
music ensemble. But, being young, we went ahead."
Griller,
O'Brien, Burton and Hampton met while students in their teens at the Royal
Academy of Music in London. Their common interest in playing quartet music
attracted the attention of Lionel Tertis, viola virtuoso and professor at the
Academy, who wanted them to accomplish what he, during his lifetime, had been
unable to do --- organize a quartet that would stick together. The organizer
of several male quartets, Tertis had been repeatedly disappointed when they
ultimately broke up. Thinking that females might prove more reliable he turned
to organization of girl quartets. One of these groups looked promising. They
stuck around to play all 84 Hayden Quartets, right in a row. But, following
the conclusion of that concert series, two of the girls quit to join up with
an American swing band. Tertis returned to male quartets and, most hopefully,
to Sidney Griller.
Griller remembers that
"Tertis was very kind to us. I also remember," he continues,
"that I was thrown out of his class three times."
Tertis
taught the quartet for 18 months at the Academy, most of which time he spent
in trying to persuade the boys to launch seriously on their musical careers.
His urgings were clinched one evening when the Grillers heard the famous Pro
Arte Quartet play Revel and Debussy at the London Museum. "Their playing
was so superb," Griller recalls, "and they derived such a pleasure
out of it, that we determined to stick it out no matter what."
Like
most students they had very little money and no financial backing. First of
all, they would need a house with as economical a rent as possible. They found
it at Pagham Beach in the form of three abandoned railroad cars. Two of
these served as living and dining wings and the third was transformed into a
rehearsal room. The rent, when they were able to afford it, came to $2 per
week. This became the Griller's summer training quarters. During the warm
months they lived on canned goods, sparingly rationed, and practiced on an
average of 10 hours daily.
In order to
sustain themselves financially, they took a theater job in London, playing for
a show which starred Beatrice Lillie. Following this they found employment
with a new show which featured "The Co-optimists," a vaudeville
group. During the Co-op run Griller and Burton went to Sir Henry Wood's
Orchestra to play background music for the first British talkie movies, while
O'Brien and Hampton stayed on with the Co-op group.
Late
at night, following the performances, the four boys would meet at a coffee
stall for "vile coffee and sausages that used to burn our insides
out." Here, also, they counted their money after each payday.
"Hampton
and I would produce our $32," O'Brien says, "while Burton and
Griller would lay out the hundreds they'd earned while playing for the
talkies."
When they had earned
enough money for future subsistence the Grillers quit their jobs and
determined to get down to the intensive practice they needed to become a
reputable string quartet. From that day on, they have never accepted
independent engagements. Financially, this rule worked a hardship; artistically,
it was the only possible way to preserve intact the group's ideal of an absolutely
homogeneous chamber music ensemble.
The
first thing they did was buy a Buick sedan. Next they moved out of their
railcar suite and took a house in St. Albans, which had proper heating
facilities for the cold months which lay ahead.
"Our
entrance into St. Albans was very good," Hampton recalls, smiling
mischievously. Griller laughs: "It's a cathedral city about 20 miles out
of London; very quiet, you know. We arrived there on November 5, on Guy Fawkes
Night, which is somewhat comparable to your July Fourth. Upon entering we went
to the nearest flower bed, planted as much ammunition in it as possible, and
blew it to smithereens. A lady nearby turned to us and said, 'You can't do
that!' Burton, who was 20 and the eldest of our group, shrugged his shoulders
and stoically answered, 'But we are'."
"We
had a frightful reputation in St. Albans," Griller continues. "They
thought we were monsters. We'd shut ourselves up all day practicing and then
come out at night to release our youthful energies."
"Of
course," O'Brien joins, "we did do some rather strange things at
times --- like building model airplanes during the day and then launching them
from our balcony at midnight by candlelight."
"And sitting up all night talking about
everything under the sun," Griller adds.
"None
of which made any sense," Burton remarks.
"And
do you remember that terrible Port wine: We'd long ran out of money for decent
liquor. The only thing we could afford was the kind of Port wine you buy for
50 cents a bottle and should use for nothing else except cooking and polishing
the furniture. Sometimes we'd play an opera like Tosca far into the
night, while sipping on this horrible wine."
"By
three in the morning we thought we were playing Tosca
masterfully," Burton adds.
The
Griller remained four years at St. Albans, practicing daily and giving
concerts whenever and wherever possible. During that time the trades-people of
the village, who had long decided that the boys were not monsters, gave them
every financial assistance possible. Even the banker gave them enormous credit
because he was impressed one day when they brought in a check for $48 from the
British Broadcasting Company. People in the village, who liked good music as
well as they liked the boys personally, saw them through their financial
stresses. Today these persons are lifetime honorary members of the Quartet's
audience wherever they are playing.
By
now the Grillers' fame was beginning to spread across England. Their early
concerts were given in barns and corn exchanges, in saloons, inns and in small
towns where there were no concert halls and where the people had never
attended a concert. "We played for any crowd and for any price,"
Griller says.
In 1932 the Quartet moved
from St. Albans to London because "it cost too much to commute."
Shortly thereafter their reputation as a talented string ensemble increased
and they were soon performing all over England, Germany, Italy, France,
Belgium, Scandinavia and Holland. Their concerts in the decade after their
founding totaled nearly a thousand in Europe alone.
On
February 5, 1939, the Quartet made its first American appearance in New York
City's Town Hall. "We realized that this debut could be our big turning
point," Griller says. "We arrived in New York quite nervous and
quite heavily in dept, both conditions which had, by now, become familiar
habit patterns with us."
The Quartet
gave an inspiring and talented performance at Town Hall. If audience reaction
were any measure of success, the Grillers were made. But ten years of
performing had taught them to be realists. They returned to their hotel and
awaited the verdict of the press which, pleasant enough, coincided with that
of the audience. Following their New York success, the Quartet was promptly
engaged for 60 concerts on a nationwide tour, after which they returned to
England. They were about to embark on a second American tour in 1940 when the
war changed their plans.
Sponsored by
their commanding officer, the Quartet joined the Royal Air Force as a group
and received the unprecedented designation of "Official String Quartet of
the British Air Forces." As part of their war work they played as many as
227 concerts a year, both for British and American servicemen. They were also
permitted to do some civilian concerts which included a performance for the
Queen in Buckingham Palace and several appearances at the National Gallery and
in Wigmore Hall.
While in the R.A.F.,
they were also engaged to play for President Truman, Churchill, Stalin, and
their chief of staff, at the Potsdam Conference on July 26, 1945.
"That
occasion was quite eventful," Griller says, "President Truman played
the piano for us." The Grillers describe the President's playing as
charming. "Also, that night, the Soviet Union announced that it would
join the United States in all-out war against Japan. No reporters were allowed
inside the Conference and we were sworn not to repeat the announcement.
"I
remember walking out past the reporters, feeling quite important. Funny thing
about keeping a secret --- if someone else knows you have a secret, you won't
tell it. Only when someone doesn't know you're keeping a profound secret will
you be inclined to spill it."
Upon
their discharge from the R.A.F. in 1945, the members of the Quartet resumed
playing on the Continent and in England, performing to capacity houses and
winning continuous praise from the critics.
In
1947 they returned to the United States for their first post-war tour. At Town
Hall they performed Ernest Bloch's Quartet No. 2 and Mozart's Quartet
in G Major. Concerning the concert Newsweek commented:
"Throughout, the four men played with watchlike precision and complete
unity of communication and interpretation." The New York Times
summed it up as "A concert which advanced nothing but highly significant
music, masterfully communicated." Musicologists, familiar with the manner
in which Town Hall performances are reviewed by the toughest critics in the
world, were struck on the occasion by the careful, measured style in which
every New York critic praised the Griller Quartet.
Following
the Town Hall concert they again toured the United States and made their Bay
Area debut in Wheeler Hall that same year.
Appointed
lecturers in music on the Berkeley campus in July, 1948, the Quartet now
divides its time between teaching string ensemble at the University during the
spring semester, and giving coast-to-coast concerts during the rest of the
year. They are also engaged for several Bay Area performances during the
spring season.
To date, the members have
performed in every state but Montana, which they hope to visit in the near
future. On the occasion of their entrance into the 47th state, the Grillers
disembarked cheerfully and decided to celebrate their entry, only to find that
they had stepped into a dry state. "They didn't even have any Port
wine," says Burton.
Touring the
country pleases the Grillers and, after 21 years of constant moving about,
they have become seasoned travelers.
"When
we were younger we would occasionally get worked up about the things that
happened to us while traveling," Hampton says. "But now, when we
find four strangers snoring in our berths, as we did recently, we merely
tiptoe into another section of the train, find four empty berths, and silently
retire."
All members of the Griller
Quartet are Fellows of the Royal Academy. Since membership in the Academy is
limited and available only at the death of a former fellow. O'Brien, who is
39, remarks: "We shall be the only Fellows under 80, I daresay. Think of
the blow to young musicians though," adds Griller, who is 38 and whose
colleagues Burton and Hampton are 41 and 37 --- "think how long they'll
have to wait for us to die!"
Married
men in the Quartet include Griller and Hampton, both of whom have two
children. O'Brien and Burton are confirmed bachelors. Griller's son, Arnold,
plays cello and piano but prefers to play cricket. His daughter, Catherine,
plays violin and wishes to become a ballet dancer. Hampton's eldest son is
studying piano and cello. The younger son, Andrew, age 9, studies piano and
aspires "to be a gangster."
The
experiences and achievements of the Griller Quartet are such as to inspire
many young persons today who are in doubt concerning the pursuit of their
talents. The four members have stuck together, as Lionel Tertis hoped they
would, through depression, war--- "and marriage," add the two bachelors.
"I
don't think our children are interested in joining any string quartets,"
Griller says, speaking for Hampton and himself. "They've seen the
atmosphere, the strain and the worry."
Griller's
son agrees and sums up his rejection of a quartet idea with: "Why be
nervous all your life?"
__________
Lafkas, Nicholas P. "Quartet In
Residence." California Monthly, VOL. LXI, No. 3,
(November 1950), pp. 22-23, 43-44.
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